PwC
The Wall Street Journal reports that the government of Ukraine may ban PwC from performing audits there. The situation stems from the National Bank of Ukraine’s effort to rebuild the country’s banking system and its questions around PrivatBank:
PrivatBank, which accounts for one-third of all individual deposits in the country, plays an outsize role in Ukrainian politics and has managed to skirt reforms.
PrivatBank was controlled by tycoon Ihor Kolomoisky, who bankrolled armed formations supporting the Ukrainian military in its fight against Russia-backed separatists and who owns one of Ukraine’s most popular television stations. Nearly all of PrivatBank’s corporate loans were made to companies tied to its shareholders, according to a 2016 analysis by PwC rival Ernst & Young LLP.
PwC audited PrivatBank’s finances from the mid-1990s until 2015. In a statement Tuesday, Ukraine’s central bank raised questions about PwC’s work, saying it has the power to revoke a firm’s eligibility to conduct bank audits if the quality of those audits is judged to be subpar.
I guess the problem with being a mega professional services firm is that you’re going to have problems of this sort in every corner of the world. The article makes the larger point that PwC’s problems are seemingly everywhere right now, with open investigations in the U.K. and Brazil, as well as rehashing the settlements with Taylor, Bean & Whitaker and MF Global. Oh, and the Oscars thing, too.
The Accountant 2
This news is over a week old, but I can’t not mention that The Accountant sequel is in negotiations right now. A few months ago we talked about the possible subtitles for such a film, and I’m sure Hollywood executives could still use your help in coming up with the right one. At this stage, I think The Accountant: Overtime or The Accountant: Reconcile This should still be considered. And although the title for the sequel is still in the works, I’m sure a production house specializing in adult entertainment has already secured The Accountant: Between the Spreadsheets for its version.
Honorable Mention
In this New York Times book review of ProPublica reporter Jesse Eisinger’s The Chickenshit Club Why the Justice Department Fails to Prosecute Executives, Arthur Andersen is offered as an example of when a company was criminally charged with wrongdoing. It includes this dig: “Andersen was already collapsing because it had shredded its own reputation.” Intentional or not, I felt it couldn’t go unappreciated.
Brought to you by Accountingfly
Beech Valley Solutions is trying to fill several openings, including an Interim CFO/COO, and two controller positions. Accountingfly’s featured job of the week was a Senior Accountant with Dillwood, Burkel & Millar.
Previously, on Going Concern…
I’ve returned from my vacation, but since the last ANR, Megan Lewczyk wrote about her experience with the CPA exam bonus clawback.
Greg Kyte put together a 5-part Exposure Drafts miniseries starring Viking CPA.
Rachel Andujar wondered if anyone’s preparing tax returns the same way as they were 5 years ago.
Marsha Leest offered questions to ask yourself to see if you’re in the right job.
I even dug out an old Accountingfly post I wrote about networking.
In other news:
- SEC Tells American Airlines to Rein In Praise of Its Non-GAAP Metrics
- Volvo is going electric.
- Microsoft could lay off ‘thousands’ as it focuses more on cloud services
- You can now snort chocolate — but should you?
- We Do Not Have a Child Slave Colony on Mars: NASA